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Blinx: The Time Sweeper Review - Xbox

The game that had everyone talking at this year's E3 was Blinx. Could this furry little creature Microsoft's answer to Mario and Sonic? The simple answer would be yes, but let's take a look at what makes Blinx the best Time Sweeper in the galaxy.

The basic plot for Blinx is similar to all other Platformers before it. There is someone trying to take over the world and you have to defeat all his henchmen to do so. The story follows a loveable character known as Blinx, a cute cat that is a Time Sweeper for a living. What is a Time Sweeper I hear you say? Well basically Time Sweepers keep time in order in each world in the galaxy. If a rift is created, time crystals are formed, and from these crystals monsters start forming.

Now what you must do as Blinx is travel from world to world in search of the Tom Tom Gang who have captured the Princess of one of the worlds. This is all explained in a very cute and well-presented intro movie that you really need to see yourself.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Blinx may appear rather confusing at first but after about half and hour of solid play it becomes second nature. The part that appears to confuse many is the introduction of the fourth dimension, time. You collect time crystals (which I mentioned before) that can be turned into time controls.

There are 5 time controls: pause, rewind, slow, fast-forward and record. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages but they can always be used to great effect and certain situations require their assistance at some point. It is easily executed and only lasts for a period of time, so you'll have to move fast.

Basically each time control time in the obvious fashion, however the one that deserves special mention is Blinx's record function. To gain this you need green crystals, which are by far and large the hardest to gather. Basically what record allows you to achieve is quite ingenious. What it allows you to do is record yourself doing one thing, i.e. distracting an enemy but running one way. Once it has stopped recording you'll go back to where you started the record from, and a green version of you will follow what you just did; but allowing the new self to be free to what you like as your past self distracts the enemy. Sounds rather confusing in writing but seeing it in practice is both rewarding and simpler.

You weapon of choice is a Time Sweeper which is basically a nice big vacuum cleaner. You use it to defeat enemies by sucking up garbage and shooting at them. Some enemies require more than one hit and you can collect different amounts and weights of garbage depending on your version of sweeper. You can purchase new items such as a new sweeper in a shop in each world using gold ... (continued next page)